the expreffion, the poetical parent of Milton. The quality I mean is, enthusiasm in the higheft degree, not only poetical but religious. Even the preface that Andreini prefixed to his Adamo may be thought fufficient to have acted like lightning on the inflammable ideas of the English poet, and to have kindled in his mind the blaze of celeftial imagination.

I am aware, that in researches like the prefent, every conjecture may abound in illufion; the petty circumstances, by which great minds are led to the firft conception of great defigns are fo various and volatile, that nothing can be more difficult to difcover: fancy in particular is of a nature fo airy, that the traces of her step are hardly to be discerned; ideas are so fugitive, that if poets, in their life-time, were queftioned concerning the manner in which the feeds of confiderable productions firft arose in their mind, they might not always be able to answer the inquiry; can it then be poffible to fucceed in fuch an inquiry concerning a mighty genius, who has been configned more than a century to the tomb, especially when, in the records of his life, we can find no pofitive evidence on the point in queftion? However trifling the chances it may afford of fuccefs, the investigation is affuredly worthy our purfuit; for, as an accomplished critic has faid, in speaking of another poet, with his usual felicity of difcernment and expreffion "the inquiry cannot be void of entertainment

"whilft Milton is our conftant theme: what26 ever may be the fortune of the chase, we are "fure it will lead us through pleasant prospects "and a fine country.

It has been frequently remarked, that accident and genius generally conspire in the origin of great performances; and the accidents that give an impulse to fancy are often such as are hardly within the reach of conjecture. Had Ellwood himself not recorded the occurrence, who would have fuppofed that a few words, which fell from a fimple youth in conversation, were the real source of Paradise Regained? Yet the offsprings of imagination, in this point of view, have a ftriking analogy to the productions of nature. The noble poem just mentioned resembles a rare and valuable tree, not planted with care and forecast, but. arifing vigorously from a kernel dropt by a rambling bird on a spot of peculiar fertility. We are perfectly affured that Milton owed one of his great poems to the ingenuous question of a young quaker; and Voltaire, as we have seen, has afferted, that he was indebted for the other to the fantastic drama of an Italian ftroller. It does

not appear that Voltaire had any higher authority for his affertion than his own conjecture from a flight inspection of the drama, which he haftily describes; yet, it is mere justice to this rapid entertaining writer to declare, that in his conjecture there is great probability, which the Englifh reader, I believe, will be inclined to admit

in proportion as he becomes acquainted with Andreini and his Adamo; but before we examine their merit, and the degree of influence that we may suppose them to have had on the fancy of Milton, let us contemplate, in one view, all the fcattered hints which the great poet has given us concerning the grand project of his life, his defign of writing an epic poem.

His first mention of this defign occurs in the following verses of his poetical compliment to Manfo :

O mihi fi mea fors talem concedat amicum,
Phœbæos decoraffe viros qui tam bene norit,
Si quando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges,
Arturumque etiam fub terris bella moventem,
Aut dicam invictæ fociali foedere menfæ
Magnanimos heroas; & O modo fpiritus adfit,
Frangam Saxonicas Britonum fub marte phalanges!

O might fo true a friend to me belong,
So fkiil'd to grace the votaries of fong,
Should I recal hereafter into rhyme
The kings and heroes of my native clime,
Arthur the chief, who even now prepares
In fubterraneous being future wars,
With all his martial knights to be reftor'd,
Each to his feat around the fed'ral board;
And, O! if spirit fail me not, disperse
Our Saxon plund'rers in triumphant verse.

COWPER

1.

Mr. Warton fays, in his comment on this paffage, it is poffible that the advice of Manfo, the friend of Taffo, might determine our poet to a defign of this kind." The conjecture of this refpectable critic may appear confirmed by the following circumftance: In the dif courfes on Epic Poetry, which are included in the profe works of Taffo, Arthur is repeatedly recommended as a proper hero for a poem. Thus we find that Italy most probably suggested to Milton his first epic idea, which he relinquifhed; nor is it lefs probable that his fecond and more arduous enterprise, which he accomplished, was fuggefted to him by his perufal of Italian authors. If he faw the Adamo of Andreini reprefented at Milan, we have reason to believe that performance did not immediately infpire him with the project of writing an epic poem on our First Parents; because we find that Arthur kept poffeffion of his fancy after his return to England.

In the following verfes of his Epitaphium Damonis, composed at that period, he ftill fhows himself attached to romantic heroes, and to British ftory:

Dicam, & Pandrafidos regnum vetus Inogeniæ,
Brennumque Arviragumque duces, prifcumque Belinum
Et tandem Armoricos Britonum fub lege colonos,
Tum gravidam Arturo, fatali fraude, Iögernen,
Mendaces vultus, affumptaque Gorlöis arma
Merlini dolus.

Of Brutus, Dardan chief, my fong fhall be,
How with his barks he plough'd the British sea;
First from Rutupia's tow'ring headland feen,
And of his confort's reign, fair Inogen;
Of Brennus and Belinus, brothers bold,
And of Arviragus; and how of old
Our hardy fires th'Armorican controll'd;
And of the wife of Gorlois who, furpris'd
By Uther in her husband's form disguis'd,
(Such was the force of Merlin's art) became
Pregnant with Arthur of heroic fame:
These themes I now revolve.

COWPER,

In one of his controverfial works, published in 1641, Milton informs us what poetical ideas were then fluctuating in his mind; particularly "what king or knight before the Conqueft might "be chofen, in whom to lay the pattern of a "christian hero." This project of delineating in a hero a model of chriftian perfection, was fuggefted to the English poet, not only by the example, but by the precepts, of Taffo, as they are delivered in his critical difcourfes. The epic designs of Milton were fufpended, we know, for many years, by very different purfuits; and when he escaped from "the troubled fea of noise "and hoarfe difpute to the quiet and ftill air of "delighful ftudies," Arthur had fo far ceased to be his favorite, that he probably exclaimed, in the words of Taffo: